Horror

Science Fiction

Rabid

Canadian Film Development Corporation

Cinépix Film Properties (CFP)

Cinema Entertainment Enterprises

Dunning/Link/Reitman Productions

Famous Players

Canada

English

Marilyn Chambers

Terri Hanauer

Frank Moore

Joe Silver

Howard Ryshpan

Patricia Gage

Susan Roman

Roger Periard

Lynne Deragon

Victor Désy

Julie Anna

Gary McKeehan

Terence G. Ross

Miguel Fernandes

Robert O'Ree

Greg Van Riel

Jérôme Tiberghien

Allan Moyle

Richard W. Farrell

Jeannette Casenave

Karl Wasserman

John Boylan

Malcolm Nelthorpe

Vlasta Vrana

Kirk McColl

Jack Messinger

Yvon Lecompte

Grant Lowe

John Gilbert

Tony Angelo

Peter MacNeill

Una Kay

Madeleine Pageau

Mark Walker

Robert A. Silverman

Monique Bélisle

Ronald Mlodzik

Isabelle Lajeunesse

Terry Donald

Louis Negin

Robert V. Girolami

Harry Hill

Kathy Keefler

Marcel Fournier

Valda Dalton

Murray Smith

Riva Spier

Denis Lacroix

Sherman Maness

Basil Fitzgibbon

Sonny Forbes

John Dunning

David Cronenberg

Sharron Wall

Jean LaFleur

Don Carmody

Claude Marchand

André Link

Ivan Reitman

René Verzier

Joe Blasco

Byrd Holland

Mireille Recton

Danny Goldberg

André Ouellette

Tatiana Mihailoff

Joe Grimaldi

Norma Bailey

Joe Elsner

Al Griswold

Jean-Paul Houle

Joel Sussman

Denis Gingras

Jean-Jacques Gervais

John Fretz

Richard Lightstone

John Berrie

Jim Thompson

Heather Allan

Mike Bacarella

Phil Desjardins

Jean Lavigne

Len Blum

John Daoust

Carolynne Roberts

Debbie Karjala

Patricia Cahill

Louis de Ernsted

Carolyn Cronenberg

Marc de Ernsted

Sarah Dundas

John Caradonna

Jacqueline Carmody

Andrew Deskin

Patrick Dodd

Hydrophobic Induced Phallic Destroyer.

Rabid is written and directed by David Cronenberg and it stars Marilyn Chambers, Frank Moore and Joe Silver. Cinematography is by Rene Verzier and music by Ivan Reitman.

When Rose (Chambers) is involved in a horror motorcycle accident, she undertakes experimental surgery in order to save her life. However, she develops a taste for blood and has grown a deadly orifice under her armpit. As the victims stack up and Rose grows ever more insane, the city is put on red alert.

David Cronenberg’s second full-length film continues the themes found in his smart debut Shivers from the previous year. Body horror and disease come to the fore but Cronenberg expands it out from the confines of one building, into a whole city! Once again operating with a small budget with great results, the director fills out the narrative with sweaty virus panic, intelligent barbs, addiction concerns and visceral nastiness, with the phallic destroyer under Rose’s arm a frighteningly bonkers creation. True to the director’s career peccadilloes, sex and violence also come under the microscope, while his camera work shows an inventiveness that off-sets the poor effects work. The city is suitably painted as dowdy so as to run concurrent with the diseased narrative, and porn star Chambers gives a very effective performance while others are merely adequate.

A simple story and periods of sag and drag stop it being top of the line Cronenberg, but there’s a raw energy to Rabid that is most striking. Watching it now as it heads towards being four decades old, it signals with intent a career being born of a most skilled auteur. 7/10

Rabid (1977) - Official Trailer (HD)

David Cronenberg on casting porn star Marilyn Chambers: CBC Archives

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Rabid

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Cast

Marilyn Chambers

Terri Hanauer

Frank Moore

Joe Silver

Howard Ryshpan

Patricia Gage

Susan Roman

Roger Periard

Lynne Deragon

Victor Désy

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